1. The Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computer applications using or requiring access to documents and files and, more particularly, to novel systems and methods for retrieving documents and files even after a link has been lost between the document or file and an accessing application.
2. The Background Art
Applications executing on a computer typically require access to one or more documents, files, databases, and the like. A link to a document (location, identification) may be lost or broken occasionally. A break of a link between a document and an application accessing that document may occur due to one or more circumstances. Typically, a location change for one document referenced by another, a break in a hardware connection, an inadvertent closure or crash of an application, a removal of a file server from service, altering, deleting, or moving a document and a host of other occurrences may break a link between a document and an accessing application.
Locating a document that has inadvertently been lost or unlinked from an application is often difficult, sometimes impossible. Typically, much information that could be used to reestablish a link inadvertently broken may be destroyed in subsequent action by other applications or a user. Thus, maintaining links to documents is problematic.
Documents are not always static entities. A user may access, through an application, a document or file (generically referred to as a document, regardless of a format) only occasionally, compared to another user. Moreover, copies of a document may be made and distributed to various locations. Documents may be deleted by one user, unaware of another user's reliance thereon. Thus, a document, required or referenced by an application, or by another document used by an application, may be lost, removed, moved, destroyed, altered, and the like. Communication of such changes in the whereabouts or status of a document may create very frustrating consequences for an occasional user. Even relatively frequent users of particular documents may find great difficulties due to alterations to those documents' status.
Directory services systems have been implemented in many networks. A directory services system may include a database of objects that are scattered across the network on different servers, nodes, or other computers. However, all objects in the database are linked in a hierarchy establishing relationships therebetween. Directory services databases may be created to define and manage information related to an organization. Likewise, directory services databases may include information on software, hardware systems, assets, financial data, personnel, property, inventory, and the like. Directory services databases are well understood in the art. Directory services systems, also called network directory services, typically provide executables (e.g. engines) for inputting, linking, outputting, searching, updating, and the like, all of the objects within a directory services database. Certain standard functions including database management of contained objects, object structures including attributes and executables or methods related to those attributes, as well as user interfaces for providing inputs and obtaining outputs from directory services systems are well established.
What is needed is a method and apparatus for defining, tracking, updating, searching, and the like, certain key attributes useful for maintaining the links to documents. Certain features of a directory services system need to be incorporated into a link management method and apparatus to create, find, and reestablish links as required for storage and retrieval of the linked document.